Government prosecutors ask court to stop transfer of suspects in journalist’s slay

GENERAL SANTOS CITY — Government prosecutors handling the murder case of broadcaster Ely Binoya have asked the revocation of the earlier order transferring the detention of the suspected assassins from the city jail to the nearby Sarangani Provincial Jail due to reported "special treatment".

In a five-page omnibus motion filed before Regional Trial Court Judge Oscar Noel of Branch 36, City Fiscal Edilberto Jamora said that principal suspects Barangay Tampal Chairman Ephraim Englis and his driver, Alfonso Toquero, should be immediately transferred from the Sarangani provincial jail to the General Santos Reformatory Center at sitio Lanton, Barangay Apopong here.

"The accused (suspects) and the Sarangani Provincial Jail warden’s act prejudice the cause of the people to successfully prosecute this case, makes a mockery of our judicial processes, and demeans the administration of justice," Jamora said in his motion.

The request for transfer came when the government prosecutors handling the murder case received reports that Englis was accorded preferential treatment by the Sarangani Provincial authorities "as accused Englis is not actually kept in a cell but treated as a preso caballero with their own private living quarters as the one formerly occupied by convicted priest killer Norberto "Bucay"Manero.

Englis and Toquero were tagged as principal suspects in the killing of Radyo Natin manager Ely Binoya, who was gunned down by two motorcycle-riding gunmen along the national highway in Barangay Upper Labay, on June 17, 2004.

Prosecutors said Englis, barangay chairman of Datal Tampal, Malungon, Sarangani, showed disrespect to the court’s judicial authority when he was allowed to go out of detention without any court order.

Englis was reportedly flagged down at a checkpoint by Army soldiers aboard a Toyota Revo car, with license plate LEY-127, in Barangay Malandag, Malungon last July 9.

During a hearing last month, prosecutor’s motion to transfer the suspects from Sarangani provincial jail to the city jail was approved because the crime was committed in the city. — John Paul Jubelag